POLICE UNDER FIRE: MAD MAX follows the shocking 1985 police shootings by burglar and gun enthusiast Pavel Marinof, aka ‘Mad’ Max Clark. When a routine search of Clark’s vehicle by Victorian police in June 1985 uncovered tools of the burglary trade, Clark attacked the officers and went on the run. During the subsequent chase, Clark burst through a police barricade in an attempt to run one officer down and shot at five others, wounding four and permanently paralysing another.

Clark managed to escape the manhunts of 1985, but was apprehended in February 1986 after a tip-off led police to a hiding place in Wallan, 45km north of Melbourne. Deciding to fight back, Clark again shot at Detectives Rod McDonald and John Kapetanovski, before being fatally shot.